The exit door had barely swung closed behind producer Kim Todd at Winnipeg’s Credo Entertainment when Jeff Peeler of spot unit Credo Productions followed her out.

Peeler has relaunched Critical Madness, the production company he abandoned when he and partner Brenda Kovitz were scooped up by Credo in May of 1988. But the Madness is back, and will again handle commercial production and feature film projects.

Peeler explains why he left: ‘Credo is in a position right now where they’re moving away from having producers on staff.’

Derek Mazur, top dog at Credo, echoes Peeler’s reasoning. ‘What we found happening is when we had people producing – a lot of our development was handled by producers, which is not that normal – when somebody went off to do a show, then development and those areas would stop or be severely curtailed. And we think it was affecting our sales in the long term. We’re starting to see this kind of wave pattern that’s showing us we do $11 million one year, then $28 million and then we go back to $11 million and back up. We’re trying to even that off.’

For Peeler, the timing was right. ‘Since my division, Credo Productions, was relatively self-sufficient, especially for commercials, it just seemed the formal link to a larger company had outlived its purpose for me.’

Peeler is not going alone. ‘The roster of directors I have here at Credo will become my roster of directors at Critical Madness,’ he says.

Directors moving along with Peeler include: Chris Bond, Jeff Erbach, Shereen Jerrett, Guy Maddin, John Paizs and possibly Noam Gonick.

Credo, for all intents and purposes, is out of the commercial production business. Mazur promises it will still get involved in larger-budget productions, but will leave the production to Peeler and Critical Madness. ‘When we get some of this lower-budget stuff, it’s not really worth it for us. There’s no real benefit. But we still get asked to do higher budget commercials and those we’ll proceed with. We’ll call Jeff.’

For now, Peeler will be handling the phone calls solo. Asked if former partner Kovitz, would join him, Peeler’s smile was audible. ‘That will be completely up to her. After a year of traveling the world [for World’s Greatest Spas], it’s up to her whether she wants to look at my ugly face.’

Mazur, meanwhile, cautions against reading too much into the departure of the producers. He explains the continuing association all the departed producers will keep with Credo.

‘A big part of Kim [Todd] leaving – and she was a shareholder – was that we have her contracted to do two shows with us. And Brenda [Kovitz] is contracted to do Spas with us. And Jeff has been actually working on some other lifestyle material for the company. All the people who have left Credo have ongoing contractual relationships with Credo,’ says Mazur.

Peeler sees a niche for Critical Madness in the Manitoba production scene. ‘There was a need for someone to produce higher-end commercial projects. There was, of course, the really high end, most of which goes out of town. Then there was the really low end. And more and more people are starting to see the value of spending a bit more money on their commercial because it will get them a better return for their money.’

Critical Madness hopes to set up an alliance with a Toronto commercial production company, to create a director exchange.